Richard emails from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to share some favorite phrases from his beloved grandmother. We waited for you like one pig for another means “We got tired of waiting for you at the table and went ahead and started eating.”...
A listener shares a story about how she went from hating the nickname her grandmother bestowed on her to regarding it with fondness many years later. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Learning to Love a Nickname”...
Mimi in Plattsmouth, Nebraska, wonders about a phrase her grandmother used to express disbelief or indignation: Good grief and little fishes! Far more common is the phrase Ye gods and little fishes! or simply Ye gods! These expressions all serve as...
Susan in Virginia Beach, Virginia, says that whenever she looked sad as a child, her grandmother would say she looked like somebody licked the red off her candy. This phrase goes back at least to the 1920s, and refers to licking the red coloring off...
Nine-year-old Evie calls from Texas to ask about the origin of the phrase raining cats and dogs. This idiom alludes to the cacophonous nature of a heavy downpour. Around the world, expressions about torrential rain also connote the idea of a noisy...
Our earlier conversation about gram weenies, another name for ultralight backpackers, prompted a San Diego, California, man to write with the story of Bill Lear, the inventor of the LearJet, who once said he’d trade his own grandmother for a...